Break my Heart
by LH-chan
Summary: PART 3 UP! Wolfwood and Vash, alone in the desert as night falls...of course Vash has been shot, and they're running from bounty hunters. (Shounen-ai.)
1. Part One

Author's Note:

I don't own Trigun, that honor belongs to a bunch of really talented people with unusal fashion sense (and I mean that in a good way =^_^=).

Also, you should expect just a tiny bit of AU-ness (for slight skewing of the timeline...if I hadn't pointed it out, you probably wouldn't notice =^_^;=) and shounen-ai overtones (y'know romance between two guys, specifically Wolfwood and Vash). If you don't like that sort of thing, you probably don't want to read any further; and if you don't mind, well, enjoy. =^_^=   
  
  
  
Break My Heart  
LH-chan '02

  
Nicholas D. Wolfwood ran. His face to the setting suns, his outline obscured by their intense light. The shifting sands covered his tracks as he fled the town; a single gun held tightly in his hand. The only one he'd been able to hold on to, after exchanging the comfortable weight of his Cross Punisher on his shoulders...for another.  
The insurance girls had been left behind...somewhere, but he wasn't worried about them. They were tough girls; they could take care of themselves. 

No, it wasn't them he was worried about.... 

Wolfwood stumbled, as his eyes wandered from the blinding sand of the dunes before him to the face of the man leaning against his side.  
Vash the Stampede, the legendary gunman; the terrible fiend with the sixty billion double-dollar bounty on his head.  
Vash the Stampede, who had been struck by a wild bullet as he tried to protect innocent townspeople from a group of outlaw bounty hunters who heard he was in town; who was now clinging to Wolfwood's shoulders like a lifeline as he fought to keep moving alongside him.  
_Idiot Tongari,_ Wolfwood thought, _taking so many risks to protect them. Don't you realize most of them would have joined the bounty hunters, if someone would have told them what all the shooting was about.  
The rest would have cheered them on,_ he added bitterly. 

"Just a little farther." He whispered softly, leaning close enough to Vash that a few bits of his spiky blonde hair, knocked free of their typical style in the firefight, brushed his cheek softly.  
The bounty hunters were bound to be out among the dunes somewhere; he was unwilling to make any more noise than necessary.  
  
* * *  
  
A shadow loomed ahead in their path, thankfully too large and misshapen to be a man, breaking the monotony of the sun-bright desert ahead.  
Warily, Wolfwood drew closer, bullying his eyes into deciphering the shape, despite the abuse of staring directly into the suns for too long. 

A jagged outcrop of rock rose up at him out of the sand, its contours hidden by light and shadow alike.  
_Damned obvious place to hide,_ Wolfwood thought bitterly.  
Vash's weight strained his shoulders; he was all but carrying the injured man now. He hoped desperately that it was sweat and not blood he felt soaking though his jacket sleeve, settled against Vash's side. 

Wolfwood reguarded the rock distrustfully.  
_Doesn't look like we have much choice,_ he thought, scanning the surrounding dunes.  
There was no other cover for iles around.  
"Damn..." he muttered under his breath.  
Vash raised his head slightly; his eyes meeting Wolfwood's from beneath matted bangs.  
"What?" He slurred ever so slightly.  
Wolfwood started, he hadn't realized he had spoken aloud.  
"Nothing, Tongari, just a little farther."  
Still wary of ambush, he pressed forward. Up the sloping sand that surrounded the rock, his feet sliding back with every step, Vash's weight on his shoulders threatening to overbalance him. 

Doubts whispered cruelly though Wolfwood's mind as he climbed, their dire warnings making him jumpy. He was putting both of them in a great deal of danger. Between the dunes anyone who wanted to shoot at them would have to get very close to see them; but on this dune-side, with only sunlight and shadows to conceal them, and little hope of quick escape with their boots mired in sliding sand...if they were still being followed....  
He didn't allow himself to finish the thought; concentrating instead on the rock that loomed just ahead of them.  
Vash leaned his head weakly against Wolfwood's shoulder. 

The sooner they could get under cover the better.  
  
* * *  
  
To Be Continued.... 


	2. Part Two

Author's Note:

I still don't own Trigun, other people who have a lot of talent do.  
Anyway, here's part two. =^_^=   
  
  
  
Break my Heart—Part Two  
LH-chan '02

  
They reached the rock without incident; its shadow lengthening as the suns settled lower on the horizon, providing them with cover almost the all the way up the dune slope. After the earlier events of the day, to Wolfwood, it felt like a miracle.  
The search for shelter brought them to the edge of the rock's shadow, and a depression in the stone not quite deep enough to be called a cave. It's entrance obscured by the shadows on the rock side, but its interior still brightened, if only slightly, by sunlight.  
Gingerly maneuvering Vash through the entrance beside himself, Wolfwood made a quick check of the depression for any enemies that might be hiding. 

Nothing, only a large-eyed black cat, which darted out of sight so quickly Wolfwood wasn't certain he had seen it at all. The place seemed too good to be true. 

Satisfied that nothing would jump out from behind the nearby rocks to kill them, Wolfwood eased Vash's limp form off his shoulders, and onto the sand, settling his back against the rock wall of the depression. 

Wolfwood breathed out sharply as he pulled away from the other man, his hands slick with blood.  
_Not a good sign,_ he thought worriedly, checking the immediate area once more for signs of danger. Dark, silent, shadows stretched across the dunes in the slowly failing light, each appearing more sinister than the last to the cornered man.  
_At least there's nothing moving out there,_ he thought.  
_Yet,_ he added with brutal honesty.  
Satisfied with their shelter, for the moment, Wolfwood returned his attention to his bloody hands and the injured gunman.  
"We're safe for now," he whispered, once again leaning close enough for Vash's hair to brush his face.  
Vash raised his head a fraction, the fading sunlight reflecting off his eyes as he met Wolfwood's again.  
_Green eyes..._ The thought drifted across Wolfwood's mind lazily, not racing like all his other thoughts had been, since the shooting started.  
"Thanks," muttered Vash.  
"Dummy," said Wolfwood with a tense smile, reaching forward to work the buttons of Vash's long red coat. "You take so many risks, it's a miracle you're still alive...."  
_Shame it has to be this way; only me to help you, out here..._ Wolfwood thought.  
  
* * *  
  
To Be Continued... 


	3. Part Three

Author's Note:

Wai! Another chapter, dedicated to all the nice people who reviewed so far, and the last of my pre-typed stuff...now I just have to find the notepad with the rest on it. =^_^;=  
Anyway, I don't own Trigun...but you already knew that...I wouldn't have had the heart for certain occurances, toward the end of the series. =;_;=  
  
  
  
Break my Heart—Part Three  
LH-chan '02

  
Even through the black shirt Vash still wore, Wolfwood thought the wounds looked bad; the first, low on his chest, spreading blood across his shirtfront, the second, high on his arm, just above where his long gauntlet ended.  
_Not much I can do out here,_ thought Wolfwood grimly; the fact that all he had to work with was the clothes on his back and a gun drifting nastily through his mind.  
_Can't tell him that, though...just have to do the best I can._

He shrugged out of his jacket, then the white shirt underneath, pulling his jacket back over his bare chest as the cooling air that rose off the desert raised gooseflesh. Then he settled down on the sand across from Vash, and began tearing the white shirt into strips and tying them together. Crude bandages at best, but all he could manage under the circumstances.  
"Ne, Wolfwood..." said Vash, not bothering to lift his head this time. "You shouldn't stay with me...like this.... If those bounty hunters find us...."  
"You don't really think I'd leave you here?"  
"No...but you should...."  
"I won't. Now shut up, and save your strength," said Wolfwood, tying off the last knot in the makeshift bandages. 

Rocking forward on his knees, Wolfwood leaned toward Vash, reaching out with a gentle hand to lift the bottom of the black turtleneck away from the first of the bullet wounds.  
Vash's had stopped his in mid-motion.  
"No...another way.... You can't see..." muttered Vash, his voice weak, but his grip strong.  
"Tongari...what?"  
Vash winced, trying to move away from Wolfwood's hand.  
"Please...you can't...."  
"Vash! How can I keep you from bleeding to death if I can't even tell if the bullet's out!" Wolfwood shouted.  
The use of Vash's true name seemed to startle the blonde gunman. Indeed, the words felt awkward on Wolfwood's lips; he hadn't realized how long it had been since he had last used it. Not since he'd given Vash his nickname...in the back of a truck on the way to New Oregon, a truck they'd been thrown off moments later, for being "loud and obnoxious".  
"But...not you..." Vash's words jerked Wolfwood back to reality. "You'll...."  
Something wet dropped onto Wolfwood's outstretched hand, but in the failing light, he couldn't tell if it was condensation dripping from the rocks, or a teardrop.  
"Sorry, Tongari," said Wolfwood, "but anyone else who could help you is back in that town full of bounty hunters; and the Hell if I'm gonna let you die out here just 'cause you're hiding something from me." 

With a sharp movement, he pulled his hand from Vash's grip, and reached forward once more. The blonde gunman tensed slightly, but made no move to resist.  
Slowly, and as carefully as he could, Wolfwood peeled back the bloody fabric of Vash's shirt, his fingertips brushing across...something. Flesh, dipped away oddly. Wolfwood explored it gently with a fingertip, feeling a jagged edge to it; a scar.  
_Idiot, Tongari,_ Wolfwood thought, _if that's what you're hiding...a guy with a life half as eventful as the _rumors_ about you must have a few scars!_


End file.
